


Die For You

by Peppermint_Miraculous (Peppermint_Shamrock)



Series: For You [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Background DJWifi, Background Flagship, Gen, He gets better, He's only MOSTLY dead, Identity Reveal, So don't worry, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-20 05:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16130450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peppermint_Shamrock/pseuds/Peppermint_Miraculous
Summary: “I would die for you.”Nino had thought it a joke at the time, a silly declaration in an equally silly attempt to persuade him to share his food. But that night, Chat Noir sacrifices himself to shield Nino from a vicious Akuma, and suddenly Adrien’s earlier words aren’t a joke at all.Ladybug’s powers fix all, even death at the hands of an Akuma, but learning that your best friend is a superhero and watching him die in front of you has an effect that can’t simply be magicked away.





	Die For You

Nino tapped his foot impatiently, nervously. He kept looking around the room – towards the door where the judges had disappeared to deliberate, towards his competition, towards Alya and Adrien, engrossed in their own conversation (probably about Ladybug, by the look on their faces), oblivious to Nino’s mounting anxiety. He wished he could put on his headphones and lose his worries in music. He told himself that there was no need to be nervous, no need to worry. So what if he didn’t do well? So what if the judges didn’t like his film? There’d be other competitions, other opportunities to improve and show his talent. So what if he’d poured his heart and soul and most of his free time over the past couple months into this? So what if _this_ competition was for short tribute films to Ladybug and Chat Noir?

His foot tapped faster.

He wished Marinette was here. She was late. Adrien had also been late, but honestly, Nino was just glad Adrien was able to come at all. But Marinette, as a fellow artist (though of different stripes), was the only one who would really understand his nerves. She’d share his nervousness, probably. While all four of them had pitched in for this, she’d really thrown herself into helping Nino make this film be the best it could possibly be. It meant almost as much to her as it did to him.

“ _Relax_ , Nino,” Alya interrupted his thoughts, slinging an arm around his shoulders. Nino flushed. Apparently, his anxiety hadn’t gone as unnoticed as he thought. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you were shaking the whole building right now. Everything’s gonna be _fine_.”

“Definitely.” Adrien nodded and gave Nino a reassuring smile. “You’re the best here, I’m sure of it.”

“You missed the first half of the showings, you can’t say that for sure,” Nino said. “I’m not just up against other kids, there are adults in this too, with adults’ budgets and experience.”

“Adults’ budgets?” Alya scoffed. “We had Adrien’s allowance, pretty sure that’s bigger than most adults’ budgets. Oh, don’t duck your head like that, rich boy, you know it’s true. And we’re hardly complaining, right Nino?” She removed her arm from his shoulder to successively poke each boy in his side.

“Right,” Nino said, not reassured in the slightest. Alya shook her head at him, a fond smile tugging at her lips.

“You don’t get worked up easily,” she said, still smiling, and replaced her arm around his shoulder. “But when you do get worked up, you really get worked up, huh? You’ll do great, Nino. You’ve got nothing to worry about. The judges will love your film, you’ll see.”

“And if they don’t, we’ll still know that you’re the best, even if they can’t see it,” Adrien said, stepping in front of him and claiming Nino’s other shoulder with his hand.

“Thanks…but that’s not really what I’m worried about.”

“Oh?” Adrien raised his eyebrows and Alya looked at him curiously.

“I…” the words caught in his throat. “I just want…this is for Ladybug and Chat Noir, you know, and I just want it to be good, for them. After everything they’ve done, to just show how much I appreciate and admire them. So it can’t be anything less than the best,” he finished lamely.

“Oh, Nino…that’s so sweet!” Alya said. She squeezed his shoulder tightly, and Nino couldn’t keep a smile from sneaking onto his face. Of course Alya would understand his sentiment; she dedicated so much to the heroes herself, after all.

“That’s what you’re worried about?” Adrien asked. He started to move his other hand towards the shoulder that Alya had claimed, then appeared to think better of it, and settled for giving Nino a soft smile and a gentle squeeze on the shoulder he did have access to. “I can assure you, that no matter what the judges think of your film, Ladybug and Chat Noir will absolutely appreciate it and the message you’re trying to get across. I’m 100% certain that they’ll love it.” He sounded completely confident, with a strange glint in his eyes that made it seem like he knew something Nino didn’t, and Nino finally felt a little of his anxieties ease, even if he couldn’t completely share his friend’s confidence.

“Well, if they get to see it,” Alya said. She waved her phone around in one hand. “There was an Akuma earlier, the fight only ended after the film showings started, so they would’ve missed them, or at least most of them. And only the three winners get put up on the website.”

Adrien shot her a look.

“I mean! We could always put your film up on the Ladyblog later, the competition would allow that, right?” Alya amended hastily. Before Nino could respond, a familiar voice cut through.

“Sorry I’m late!” Marinette called out, ignoring the annoyed looks directed at her loud voice as she scrambled through the crowd towards their group. She clutched a box between her hands, which she promptly shoved towards Nino as she reached him. “This took a little longer than I expected.”

“What…?” Nino started to ask. He shrugged his way out of Alya and Adrien’s claims to his shoulders to accept the box, which was clearly meant for him. The top of the box was windowed, revealing…

“A cake?”

A small, personal-sized cake, with the words “Good job, Nino!” scrawled in frosting next to beautifully detailed renditions (also frosting) of a camera and a director’s chair, but a cake nonetheless.

“Yeah! I spent most of the day making that for you, to celebrate.” She looked up at him with that eager, shining smile that absolutely would’ve had his heart fluttering if he didn’t have a girlfriend.

“Thanks, Marinette…but isn’t it a little early to celebrate? I don’t even know if I’ll do well,” Nino said, prompting groans from Alya and Adrien…who he now noticed were both leaning very suspiciously over him towards the cake – _his_ cake. Nino possessively pulled the box against his chest. Alya and Adrien both pouted, and Marinette giggled.

“It’s never too early to celebrate,” Marinette assured him. “And I know you’ll do well.”

“Come on, Nino, aren’t you going to share? We all helped you with this, after all,” Alya said, leaning closer. Nino tightened his hold on the box.

“A _Marinette_ -made cake? No way.”

“Not even with your girlfriend?”

“Nope.”

“What about your best friend?” Adrien asked, eyes wide and pleading.

“Nope. Not happening. This is _mine_.”

“Pleaaaaase?” Alya and Adrien begged in unison. Nino shook his head. Neither was deterred, however, and they began a series of increasingly dramatic and ridiculous pleas.

“Nino, love of my life, dearest boyfriend one could ask for, most supportive and caring…”

“Nino, greatest friend in the world, brother I never had, my most cherished companion…”

“ever-faithful, patient, loving, devoted…”

“talented, dedicated, cool, _generous_ , a guy who has always been there for me…”

“won’t you humbly share your cake with me?” they ended in unison. Nino was unswayed, though he couldn’t keep himself from smiling, and Marinette had progressed from giggling to chuckling to full on laughter.

“I will give you my unceasing love and affection,” Alya promised.

“I will give you _my_ unceasing love and affection, and my eternal gratitude,” Adrien said.

“I will give you my love, affection, eternal gratitude, and unyielding devotion.”

“I would give you all of that and my unconditional support.”

“Oh my _God_ ,” Marinette choked out through her laughter. Nino wondered how long it would take before Alya and Adrien gave up trying to steal his cake. He was _not_ sharing, no matter what ridiculous declarations they came up with as they tried to one-up each other.

“I would follow you to the ends of the earth and whisk you off into the sunset,” Alya continued.

“I would climb the highest peaks and descend to the greatest depths of the ocean,” Adrien said, with a flourish.

“I would kill for you.”

“I would die for you.”

“Look,” Nino said, finally breaking out an amused laugh. “You’re not getting my cake. If you really want one that badly, shouldn’t you be asking Marinette?”

Marinette’s laughter dried up immediately, and she shot Nino the most scathing glare at his utter betrayal. Luckily for Nino, the glare only lasted half a second, as Adrien, without missing a beat, turned to Marinette, and said:

“I would die for you too, Marinette.”

Which, naturally, made Marinette turn bright red and lose any semblance of being intimidating. Before she could do much more than babble out something that probably at one point was intended to be “I’d rather you didn’t die, actually,” Alya jumped in and spouted her own declarations of devotion, jokingly claiming she would leave Nino for Marinette and her cakes.

And Nino knew for a fact that Alya was joking. Alya wouldn’t leave him for cake. She’d only ever leave him for Ladybug, probably. And even then, she’d probably invite him along. That, and he was mostly sure that that particular declaration was a sneaky attempt to trick Adrien into one-upping her with a love confession of his own to Marinette. Which really wasn’t a good idea if she was also aiming to get cake, since Marinette could hardly make any cake if her brain imploded.

It never happened, either way, because before Adrien could respond with anything, the judges’ door swung open. All conversation faded at once, and everyone quickly took their seats in silence. Nino realized with some surprise that he was no longer nervous. A small smile snuck onto his face. Guess his silly girlfriend and best friend were able to reassure him after all.

Still, he watched and listened to the proceedings with rapt attention. He knew that they would only list the winners after they gave a brief critique of each film, but it didn’t hurt to pay attention to and learn from the critiques of others’ films. Still, when they came to _his_ film, he sat up a little straighter in his chair, the other three mirroring his movement.

Even with his earlier fears dismissed, Nino was still relieved to hear a mostly positive critique. They spoke highly of the technical work, complimenting its quality in relation to his relative youth and inexperience (this earned him congratulatory nudges from his friends). Naturally, they still pointed out errors, but Nino was relieved that it was nothing glaring. They absolutely _praised_ the costuming and props (this time, Nino joined with Alya and Adrien in giving Marinette the congratulatory nudges). They also seemed quite impressed with the detail and care put into the plot and fight scenes, commenting that “the filmmakers clearly did their research” (a beaming Alya received the congratulatory nudges this time).

The acting was described as “solid”, with the most praise given to their Akuma villain, whose performance “simply captured the viewer” (Adrien’s turn for congratulatory nudges), their Ladybug wasn’t outstanding, but was “convincing and heroic” (Alya practically bounced in her seat), and their Chat Noir received only a slight criticism of being “overacted and a bit too flamboyant” (“Have they _met_ Chat Noir? ‘Overacted and flamboyant’ is his modus operandi!” Marinette grumbled, miffed. Adrien chuckled quietly at that and reassuringly patted Marinette on the shoulder, and her irritation vanished under a deep blush).

Overall, the piece was described as “full of love for the heroes, a compelling testament of their impact on Paris, its citizens, and the filmmaker himself”. Nino couldn’t have been happier – that was exactly what he had set out to do when he decided to take on this competition, and hearing such a confirmation of that was the highest praise. It no longer mattered what place his film took.

He got first.

Adrien, Alya, and Marinette’s cheers could’ve filled a stadium.

Unwilling to leave and part ways for the evening yet, the four of them loitered outside the auditorium and let the other groups stream slowly into the elevators. Nino couldn’t stop smiling, his certificate and cake tucked under his arm, even when he overheard grumbling about how “some kid” had taken the top spot. Marinette, though, was still sore about the comment on her acting.

“I don’t know what they expected. Chat Noir himself is so over-the-top, how was I supposed to portray him without that? I guess I’m just not a very good actress…”

“I thought you gave a great performance, Marinette,” Adrien said. “The judges just had specific expectations, I guess. Don’t put yourself down.”

“Th…thanks, Adrien,” she said, looking at her feet.

“You two are far too invested in that one little comment,” Alya said, rolling her eyes. “Nino won the competition, we should be focusing on that. And they adored your costumes, isn’t that good too?”

“Yeah,” Nino agreed. “If I thought your performance was too much, I would’ve asked you to do it differently. Really, the only problem with it was that _someone_ –“ He elbowed Adrien playfully, “- kept ruining takes because he couldn’t stop himself from bursting out laughing so much.”

“You’re just jealous that Marinette is funnier than you are,” Adrien said defensively, but with a small, teasing smile. Nino didn’t have the heart to tell him that while yes, Marinette could be incredibly funny when she wanted to be, her performance wasn’t half as funny as Adrien (and only Adrien) seemed to think it was. Whether his disproportionate reaction was due to secretly held feelings for Marinette (as Alya seemed to think it was) or just a terrible sense of humor (as Nino was more inclined to believe), it had caused quite a bit of trouble during filming. But Nino could never hold it against his best friend for long, especially since everything turned out so well.

He still couldn’t believe he’d just won the contest.

That mood couldn’t last. Such was life.

The building shook, and the lights flickered out. With, if Nino wasn’t mistaken, a distinct shout of _his_ name from somewhere below, followed by screaming, both from below and of the stragglers still on their floor.

That wasn’t a good omen.

With a hum, the generator lights kicked on. Nino blinked to adjust his eyes to the dim lighting, just making out the worried faces of his friends…and eager face of his girlfriend as she started scrambling for her phone.

“Please don’t tell me that the guy whose Akuma concept was criticized as ‘uncharacteristically violent’ just got turned into that very same Akuma,” Marinette said, her lips curled in a calculating frown, eyes scanning the room.

“Well, that’s one way of proving the judges _wrong_ , I suppose…” Adrien said, but despite his lighthearted words, there was a clear tenseness in his voice and expression. He too, was scanning the room.

“Aaand 62% charge, that’s good enough,” Alya announced, her voice lacking any of the nervousness of her friends as she took off, phone in hand. “Bye bye, I’ll see you all later!”

Nino could only groan as she disappeared into the stairwell, knowing there was nothing he could do to hold her back. And judging by Marinette and Adrien’s identical expressions, they shared much the same sentiment. He turned to them and grimaced.

“Ordinarily, I’d go after her, but considering the circumstances…” he said. _Considering the Akuma’s probably after me_ , he left unsaid.

“I’ll go,” Marinette said, biting her lip anxiously, but with determination clear on her face. “Someone needs to make sure that she doesn’t…get into too much trouble.”

“As for you two…” Marinette glanced around again, and let out an “ah-hah” as her gaze fell on some sort of maintenance room beside the elevators. She ran over to the door and tried to pull it open. “Locked, damn…”

“So that’s out,” Nino said, turning to Adrien for ideas.

“No, I got it!” Marinette said, and the boys turned to her in surprise as she threw open the door. Nino decided to just thank their fortune and not dwell on how easily Marinette could open locked doors. Or maybe it had just been stuck…?

He and Adrien slipped into the dark room. Marinette gave them a short nod, and closed the door, leaving them in total darkness. Nino listened until he could no longer hear her footsteps, and braced himself. Nino knew that he still wasn’t safe here, and herein lay the difficult part – convincing Adrien to leave Nino and save himself.

“Adrien…that Akuma’s gonna find us here. He’s after me. You can’t stay here.” He couldn’t see Adrien’s face in the darkness, but he was sure that if he could, he’d see Adrien frowning. To his surprise, however, Adrien didn’t protest.

“You’re right.”

Nino started. Had Adrien really agreed already? He thought it would’ve taken a lot more effort to get him to see reason.

“That’s why I need to borrow this!” Adrien said, and Nino felt his hat get yanked off his head. Adrien pushed open the door and light filtered in, causing Nino to again blink his eyes at the sudden light.

“What…?”

“With the dim lighting, if I move fast enough, this might be enough to trick him into thinking I’m you and he’ll chase me instead,” Adrien said, looking far too proud of himself.

Before Nino could stop him, Adrien popped the hat onto his head, and took off up the stairs.

“Wait! You can’t…” Nino protested futilely. His eyes widened as he saw the Akuma appear on the stairs, catch sight of Adrien, roar with rage, and pursue him up the stairs.

Adrien’s stupid plan had worked, dammit.

God! Why were the people he cared about such idiots? Why couldn’t they have self-preservation instincts? Was that too much to ask?

Not that he was much better, he thought, as he uselessly charged up the stairs after them instead of hiding in the maintenance room like anyone with half a brain. But he couldn’t just let his best friend get himself hurt like an idiot, not on his account!

He saw no sign of Adrien, but the Akuma was exiting the stairwell a few flights above him. Nino pushed himself faster, ignoring the burning feeling in his legs as he flew up the steps, hoping he wasn’t too late.

Bursting out of the stairwell, Nino frantically glanced around for Adrien. No sign of him, but fortunately it seemed that the Akuma hadn’t found him either.

The Akuma did, however, hear Nino as he skidded to a stop, and it turned towards him.

“There you are!” he snarled at Nino, advancing on him. The floor shook and Nino lost his footing, falling painfully to the ground, and could do nothing but watch as the villain approached. Earthy brown and green, with cracks running like fault lines along the suit, Nino recognized him instantly.

 _Shit_. Marinette was right, it _was_ that guy, and he _had_ gotten turned into his own Akuma concept. _Tremor_ , if Papillon had gone with the film version’s name.

Well. This wasn’t good. At least Adrien had probably gotten away, and now Nino was the one who was going to get hurt like an idiot.

“They went easy on you because you’re a kid,” Tremor growled. “You never would’ve stood a chance, otherwise. My work was clearly superior to your childish excuse of a film. My film was a work of art, something a kid like you will _never_ understand. You haven’t spent years and years struggling to be recognized, no, and they just handed this to you…”

Nino rather hoped that Tremor would shut up, already seeing how pretentious the guy was, but he wasn’t stupid enough to say that to his face. Besides, the longer he ranted, the greater chance that Ladybug and Chat Noir would…

And, as if in answer to his thoughts, he heard the sound of Ladybug’s yo-yo, seconds before he felt himself yanked back towards the stairwell.

“Are you alright?” Ladybug asked, unwrapping her yo-yo from him with a flick of her wrist, and helped Nino to his feet. “Was there…anyone else with you?”

“Yeah, my friend Adrien, he took my hat and tried to lead the Akuma away from me. I think he got away, I haven’t seen him,” Nino answered, keeping his opinion on that to himself. Though he suspected from Ladybug’s expression that she had similar thoughts to his on Adrien’s brave stupidity.

“Ladybug! I think you have some earrings I need to shake loose,” Tremor interrupted.

“I’d rather be the one to shake things up,” she shot back, and stepped in front of Nino, whirling her yo-yo like a shield. She glanced back at him. “Quick, go!”

He didn’t need to be told twice, but only managed a few quick steps back towards the stairs before getting knocked back to the ground as Tremor stomped his feet. Ladybug, too, fell, yo-yo swinging wildly. Tremor continued to stomp towards them, preventing either from regaining their footing, until a shot of silver darted across the dim hallway and knocked Tremor himself to the ground. The quaking ceased in an instant.

“Seems things are getting a little shaky without me,” Chat Noir announced himself with a grin, leaning on a doorframe as he retracted his staff. Ladybug looked up with relief, and flipped herself up onto her feet.

“He’s targeting this civilian! We need to evacuate him, quickly,” she said, indicating Nino. Chat Noir started, eyes widening and grin vanishing as he turned his gaze on Nino, who was getting to his feet with much less grace than Ladybug.

Chat Noir crouched, and leapt, landing directly in front of Nino, who nearly fell backwards again. A clawed hand caught his shoulder, steadying him. He offered Nino another grin.

“Let’s get you out of here,” he said. Nino nodded, he certainly wasn’t inclined to argue with that. The farther he got from a rampaging supervillain – especially one after him – the better.

Naturally, Tremor threw everything off again.

At this point, Nino was just considering it lucky that his falls hadn’t broken anything. His cake, which he’d somehow held onto throughout all of this, was probably well beyond squished. He struggled to at least turn himself so that he could see what was going on, with little success. Unable to see much more than the ground as he was jolted around, his only clue to what was happening was the sounds of stomping, grunts, and Ladybug and Chat Noir’s weapons.

“We need to keep him off his feet!” he heard Ladybug shout.

Finally, the shaking stopped, and Nino lifted his head to see Tremor sailing past him and fall down the stairs. Taking the opportunity, he pulled himself to his feet again, and found himself promptly grabbed by Chat Noir and yanked along with him and Ladybug into one of the conference rooms at the end of the hall. Moonlight streamed in through the full panel of windows, mixing with the dim generator lights over the large table.

Ladybug frowned.

“Not many good hiding places up here. Chat Noir, did you see his friend at all? Blond hair, may have had a red hat?”

Nino briefly wondered how Ladybug knew his hat was red. Had he mentioned that?

“Oh, uh…yeah, yeah I saw him. He’s fine, safe. Don’t worry.”

Nino sighed in relief along with Ladybug.

“Good,” Ladybug said. She turned to Nino. “You stay here, and Chat Noir and I will take care of Tremor. We’ll try to keep him away from here, but if you hear him approach, hide…under the table or something. Away from the windows, at least. So far, the only danger seems to be that he can knock things over. We don’t know if he can shake things more violently than that…”

“He can do more than that,” Nino interrupted. Both heroes looked at him with intense focus. He swallowed. “This guy, he’s based on the villain from his film. If he’s got the same powers, he can also do more intense, focused vibrations when he holds his hands out like this – “ Nino demonstrated with his arms, trying to recall the film. It had been one of the earlier showings.

The two heroes exchanged a glance.

“That’s good to know,” Chat Noir said slowly.

“Do you know where the akuma might be? Was that in the film?” Ladybug asked.

“Uh…” Nino thought back, trying to sort through the various films that’d been shown earlier. “I think it was his goggles in the film, but I doubt the real life guy was wearing any…”

The heroes again gave each other a silent look, full of some communication Nino wasn’t privy to.

“Thank you,” Ladybug said, turning back to Nino. “Any information is greatly helpful to us.”

“No problem,” Nino said. Of course he’d give them whatever help he could.

“Stay safe,” Chat Noir said. He and Ladybug went to leave, only for the door to fly open, revealing an angry Tremor. Nino pressed himself against the wall…unfortunately far too close to the windows for his liking, but he wasn’t keen on trying to move at that moment.

Ladybug and Chat Noir went on the offensive, trying to drive Tremor back. But no matter how many times they knocked him over, he kept rising again, and in the enclosed space, the heroes were at a disadvantage. Nino wished that there was something he could do to help, but what could he do? All he had was a mangled cake in a box.

Something was better than nothing, he supposed. He threw the box, hoping Marinette would forgive him, and struck Tremor square on the back of the head.

“YOU!” Tremor shouted, turning his head towards Nino. Nino flinched but didn’t back down. The distraction gave Ladybug an opening, letting her wrap her yo-yo around Tremor’s legs and yank him to the floor.

Tremor growled, and Nino cheered.

“Search him, the akuma’s gotta be somewhere on him,” Ladybug directed her partner, a pleased smirk on her face.

But things could never be that easy, could they?

Tremor unexpectedly moved – though his legs were still bound, his arms were free, and he used them to rip up the conference table, which he threw against Ladybug with surprising force. The yo-yo slackened and Tremor pulled himself free.

“Ladybug!” Chat Noir cried, running to his pinned partner. Tremor ignored him, and turned to Nino.

Unfortunately for Nino, it seemed Tremor was more interested in revenge than the Miraculous. He raised his arms in a familiar gesture – the one that Nino had tried to demonstrate to the heroes earlier. Knowing what was to come, Nino tried to back away, but there was nowhere to go.

He could see a light glowing in the villain’s palms. Nino didn’t even close his eyes; what would be the point? He faced his end with a head-on calm he didn’t think he could possess.

He wasn’t sure how it happened, but somehow, Chat Noir leapt in front of Nino just in time, the blast striking him in the back. Nino stood frozen, watching as the hero was lifted slightly into the air, violently trembling under Tremor’s concentrated power.

Trembling was too mild a word for it. It was horrifying to watch. Nino couldn’t move, couldn’t process it, couldn’t even scream, like how Ladybug was screaming…

And Tremor refused to release him, continuing to shake Chat Noir far past what was needed, clearly furious that he had gotten between him and his target and determined to punish him as much as possible for it. He refused to let up, even long after it appeared that Chat Noir was no longer with them. Perhaps he didn’t realize it, but to Nino, it was horribly clear.

Ladybug’s screaming never stopped.

Nino was still frozen in place. He knew he should move, should run, that as soon as Tremor was finished with torturing Chat Noir, he’d be next. But he couldn’t, couldn’t do anything but watch the lifeless hero tossed like a ragdoll, his ring slowly slipping loose on his finger…

A screaming red blur – Ladybug, somehow having freed herself – slammed Tremor into the windows, shattering them in a rain of glass as hero and villain tumbled out into the night. Chat Noir was finally released, his body falling face first to the ground as Tremor’s power faded. He hit the ground gracelessly, causing the loosened ring to fall from his finger entirely, a green light pulling his suit from his body with it.

Nino didn’t see his face.

He didn’t need to.

The familiar red hat – _Nino’s_ hat – was enough to shatter Nino like Ladybug and Tremor had shattered the wall of windows.

_I would die for you._

The words rang mockingly in his head. Nino had laughed, earlier. Suddenly, that earlier conversation wasn’t funny at all.

He still couldn’t scream.

Couldn’t move.

Couldn’t cry.

Couldn’t breathe.

Something small and black emerged from the now-silver ring (he’d worn that ring all the time, how had Nino never noticed?) and flitted around the motionless body in distress. Nino couldn’t bring himself to even be curious about the thing, even when it turned its bright green eyes on him.

The thing flew to him and settled on Nino’s shoulder.

“He’ll be okay,” it said, with all the awkwardness of someone who just didn’t _do_ the whole reassuring thing. And in any other situation, Nino might’ve been impressed that the tiny flying thing could talk, but at this moment, he was far too preoccupied with the _ **broken body of his best friend lying lifeless on the floor in front of him**_.

He was hyperventilating at this point.

“Ladybug can restore him. She’ll fix this,” the flying thing said. “He’ll be okay.”

Nino wondered if the reassurance was for his or its benefit as it pressed against him in poorly disguised distress.

They waited like that for what seemed like an eternity, Nino gradually gaining control over his breathing again, never taking his eyes off of the body (not Adrien, he couldn’t call it Adrien, he knew it was but he just _couldn’t_ ).

He’d never been so relieved to see the swarms of ladybugs. They swept over the room, replacing the displaced table and chairs, repairing the windows, and most importantly, leaving Adrien, alive and uninjured, standing upright and looking around in mild confusion. As though the whole ordeal had never happened.

Adrien’s eyes met Nino’s, and they stared at one another in silence.

Just what exactly did one _say_ to their newly-resurrected best friend after watching them die in front of you and finding out they were secretly a superhero? Nino wasn’t sure he would ever find the words to say, or even his voice at all.

Hugging though, he could do hugging.

With a shaky exhale, Nino practically flung himself forward, wrapping his arms tightly around Adrien, who returned the hug after only a slight hesitation.

He was alive and he was breathing and he was safe and he was _alive_.

It was the flying thing that spoke first. It zipped up beside them and stared Adrien straight in the eyes. Nino now saw that it somewhat resembled a cat, which made a lot of sense now that he thought about it.

“ _Never_ do that again.”

“I couldn’t let Nino get hurt,” Adrien protested. Nino finally found his voice.

“No, I agree with your tiny flying cat, actually. _Never_ do that again,” he said, pulling away from the hug. “What the hell, man? I thought the ‘dying for you’ thing was a joke!”

“I mean, I was…half-joking?” Adrien said sheepishly. “I said it in a joking context, at least.”

“You literally just died sacrificing yourself to a supervillain for me.”

“Comes with the job,” Adrien said, shrugging nonchalantly.

“No, it doesn’t,” the flying cat said. “That’s on you.”

“Better me than Nino,” Adrien said stubbornly.

“What do you mean by that?” Nino demanded, getting increasingly concerned. Even if Ladybug could bring him back, it wasn’t good to just carelessly sacrifice himself like that. And Ladybug would’ve been able to bring Nino back just as well, right?

“Magic suit,” Adrien told him. “It protected me from the worst of it, so instead of being excruciatingly painful, it was just really, really uncomfortable. You would’ve gotten the full brunt of it.”

Nino hated how much sense that made, and hated that there wasn’t anything he could say to convince Adrien not to do something like that in the future. Didn’t mean he wouldn’t try, of course, but he could already tell that it was going to be useless.

“While I’m glad that being _tortured to death_ was “”just”” ‘really, really uncomfortable’ for you,” Nino started, every ounce of sarcasm he could muster poured into the word “just”. He cut himself off as he heard Ladybug calling for Chat Noir in the distance. Adrien’s expression became nervous, and he scrambled around for his fallen ring. He quickly snatched it up and slipped it on.

“Plagg, transform me!” he said in a low voice. The flying cat was pulled into the ring. Green light swallowed Adrien up, and the instant the light faded, Chat Noir turned to the door and called out: “In here, Ladybug!”

Ladybug burst through the door. Relief spread over her face as she saw Chat Noir grinning at her.

“ _Never_ do that again,” she told him, her face becoming stern.

“Just protecting a civilian, my Lady,” he said, unbothered by her tone or expression. She crossed her arms and frowned at him.

“Find a way to do that that doesn’t involve becoming a human shield.”

“You mean _feline_ shield,” he said, still grinning brightly. She fixed him with a flat glare, and the grin fell from his face as the realization appeared to sink in that it wasn’t the time for joking. Ladybug’s earrings beeped, and she sighed.

“I need to go. We’ll talk about this later,” she said. “Since you didn’t use Cataclysm, can you escort Nino home? And Nino, keep lecturing him for me, okay?”

“Don’t worry, Ladybug, I’d do that even if you asked me _not_ to,” Nino assured her. The corners of her lips turned upward at that, and to Nino’s surprise, she walked across the room instead of leaving. She bent down, and picked up a small box on the ground.

Oh, the cake. He’d forgotten about that, but it seemed that it too had been magically restored. Ladybug handed him the box, with a small smile.

“I believe this is yours,” she said. “I really enjoyed your film, by the way. I’m glad you won first place; you deserved it.”

Nino watched her leave in stunned silence.

“Told you,” Chat Noir murmured.

“What?”

“I told you that Ladybug and Chat Noir would love your film.”

Nino snapped back to reality, and snorted. Of all the things to bring up…god, that seemed like a lifetime ago, now.

“Yeah, well, now I know your opinion is biased, since you were _in_ it,” he said, and a sudden thought occurred to him. “And _now_ I understand why you absolutely refused to play Chat Noir, and why you kept ruining my takes.”

“But I’m not _wrong_ ,” he said, grinning brightly. “Anyway, I suppose I should be escorting you home, right? You probably have a lot of questions for me, too.”

“Yeah, I have questions,” Nino said dryly as he followed his friend out of the conference room and back towards the stairs. “Did you always completely lack self-preservation instincts, or did you trade them in for the superpowers?”

Chat Noir laughed.

“Actually, don’t answer that,” Nino continued. “I’ve seen the climbing wall in your bedroom. Next question: why are we going _up_ the stairs?”

He shrugged.

“The roof’s closer.”

“Wait, the roof? Why…oh no, you are _not_ taking me home via the rooftops.”

“Why not? It’ll be fun.”

“I think you and I have very different ideas of ‘fun’, Adrien.”

Chat Noir tensed, and briefly looked around nervously.

“Nino…even if we’re alone, could you avoid using my name while I’m transformed?” he asked, voice uncharacteristically serious. “Just in case someone could overhear…”

“Oh…yeah, sorry,” Nino said. He was going to have to watch that, it had slipped out far too easily. But now that he knew, he couldn’t _not_ see his best friend when he looked at Chat Noir.

“You’re…not mad, are you?” Chat Noir asked hesitantly as they continued up the stairs. “That I kept this a secret, I mean?”

“What? Of course not,” Nino said. “Secret identity and all that, I get it, man. You had to keep it a secret. I’m only mad about the whole dying thing.” The tension melted away from Chat Noir at Nino’s words.

“Yeah, well, it happens,” he said. “But I’m glad you aren’t upset with me for hiding that I’m Chat Noir. Not everyone would be so understanding.”

“You mean your dad?” Nino asked. Chat Noir chuckled.

“I was actually thinking of Chloé. But yeah, if Father found out about this, he’d never let me see the light of day again.” He pushed the roof access door open and led them out onto the roof. “You’re handling this really well.”

“I am handling absolutely nothing well,” Nino said, as the words he’d held back since Ladybug had re-entered the room came spilling out. “I think I’ve gone through my entire emotional range several times over in one evening. I thought I was going to die and then you did instead and then your ring came off and I saw _you_ , my _best friend_ , and I couldn’t _breathe_ and I know I’m going to have nightmares from staring at your corpse for God knows how long and now you’re alive and laughing like none of it even happened and I’m not even sure what I’m feeling right now so I’m just…”

Nino took a deep breath. He hadn’t exactly meant to say that much. Chat Noir had gone still. He looked…almost surprised. As though he hadn’t quite expected Nino to be affected so badly. And that just made everything worse.

“God…” Nino said, running his free hand through his hair. “You _died_ and you didn’t even think that would bother me? You really think that wouldn’t mess me up? And don’t tell me that it’s okay because Ladybug can bring you back; you’d’ve jumped in front of me, regardless, wouldn’t you?”

He actually flinched at Nino’s accusation, and dropped his gaze to the roof.

“I…” he said, and raised his head to meet Nino’s eyes again. “I won’t apologize. I can’t, because I don’t regret taking the hit for you. And I can’t promise that I won’t do it again. I don’t care if I get hurt protecting the people I care about. You’re more important than that.”

“You’re important too,” Nino argued. “And don’t pull the superhero card – I won’t pretend to know what you have to go through on a regular basis, but I can’t imagine that _dying_ is a frequent enough occurrence to act like it’s no big deal. And Ladybug and your magic cat weren’t happy about this, either.”

“If you’d just stayed where you were, and let me lead him away, everything would’ve been fine…”

“It’s not like I knew you were running off to become Chat Noir!” Nino cried, nearly dropping the cake as he threw his hands in the air. “I just thought you were doing something stupid! You _were_ doing something stupid! So don’t turn this back on me!”

A long, tense silence lingered between them, and Nino felt utterly drained, suddenly. Everything was catching up with him at once, and he’d never fought like this with Adrien before, not really. The closest he’d ever come was when trying to convince him that the shit his dad put him through was really not okay, and he never pushed too much on that, not since…

 _I got akumatized and Adrien had to fight me. On his birthday,_ Nino realized. _Do I really have any place yelling at him for what he just put_ me _through when I put him through that?_

The memory of watching Chat Noir get violently shaken to death ran through Nino’s mind.

_Yeah, yeah I do. Well, at least calling him on it…yelling probably isn’t helping._

“Sorry.” Chat Noir broke the silence, his tone low and subdued as he hung his head. “I didn’t think about how it would hurt you, and I’m sorry for that.”

It was a start.

“And I’m sorry for yelling at you. It worries me how easily you’ll throw your life away, and I’m exhausted, but getting mad at you doesn’t help anything,” Nino said.

Chat Noir nodded and held out his hand, and Nino took that as an “apology accepted”, and took his hand.

“We should get off this roof. We can talk more at your place.”

Nino looked out over the roof nervously.

“It’s perfectly safe; I won’t drop you,” Chat Noir said, smiling again. It wasn’t his wide, silly grin, but a warm smile that made his cat eyes never look more human. “I’ve carried a lot of people in this line of work.”

He supposed that was true, so Nino reluctantly agreed.

“Hold onto your hat,” Chat Noir said as he scooped Nino up.

“ _You_ have my hat,” Nino reminded him, trying not to pay attention to how far the ground was as Chat Noir effortlessly jumped to another building.

“Oh. Right. Hold onto your cake, then?”

“Oh, I will. I’m going to do some serious stress eating after I get home.” Provided his stomach wasn’t still in chaos from getting carried home by a superhero jumping across the rooftops, of course.

“So I suppose that means you’re still not going to share?”

“Nope. Especially considering you’re 90% of the reason for my stress eating.”

“What’s the other 10%?” he asked, briefly glancing down curiously at Nino.

“Well, I suppose I gotta put at least _some_ of the blame on Papillon.”

Chat Noir chuckled the entire rest of the way to Nino’s place.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was actually the second fic I started writing for this fandom (which is why it's obviously pre-Anansi, as you could probably tell from Nino's reaction to Plagg) - but it took me a while before I was happy with it. Hope you enjoyed~


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